When did the gilded Buddha statue appear? How is it made? What is the cultural significance?

Buddhism began in ancient India and was introduced to China in Han Dynasty. With the spread and development trend of Buddhism, many Buddhist handicrafts have been made, among which the gilded bronze Buddha statue, with its beautiful modeling design, colorful patterns and radiant elegance, not only brings artistic enjoyment to everyone, but also comforts the soul.

Exquisite gold-plated bronze Buddha usually contains historical time, which is the embodiment of social economy, political metallurgy, economic development and political culture, and has high historical time use value. In addition, many parts of the world believe in Buddhism and favor Buddhist plastic arts, so gold-plated bronze Buddha statues have become the focus of the global art market.

Gold-gilded Buddha: Gold is made of liquid mercury, coated on the surface of bronze ware, and then heated to evaporate the mercury, so that the gold adheres to the surface of the object and is not removed. Gold plating technology originated in the Spring and Autumn Period. Judging from the "bad clock of Chu officials" unearthed from the tomb of Liu Sheng, Zhongshan king in Mancheng, Hebei Province, its gold plating technology has been very perfect. The description of gold plating technology was first seen in the Liang Dynasty. Liang Hongjing was quoted as saying in Mercury Bar of Compendium of Materia Medica: Liquid mercury "can digest and absorb gold and silver to make mud, and people regard plating as well." This account is about eight new centuries after the appearance of gold-plated objects.

Buddha statue: Smear molten gold on the surface of bronze Buddha statue to obtain bronze Buddha statue with gold products, also called gilded Buddha statue. China's gold plating technology has been colorful since the Eastern Han Dynasty, especially in the Han Dynasty. This kind of Buddha statue is used in palaces and temples. It originated in the Han Dynasty, prevailed in the Sui Dynasty, and lasted until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, spanning more than 2,000 years. Since ancient times, among the gold-plated objects, kings of all periods have loved the Buddha statue, so that among the gold-plated objects, the Buddha statue is more noble.

Buddhism was introduced into China from the Han Dynasty, but it was only regarded as a kind of Taoist immortal art in the early days, and it was not popular. After the Han dynasty, social unrest and the daily life pain of ordinary people gave a new social soil layer for the spread of Buddhist beliefs; On the other hand, the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jiejie, Di and Qiang nationalities have settled in the north of China, and their cultural and artistic traditions are more easily recognized by Buddhism from the western regions. Therefore, Buddhism developed rapidly during the Sixteen Kingdoms period and penetrated into all social strata. During this period, the first batch of Taoist priests came into being in China, and they were fully assisted by Hu's rule.

As an artifact of Buddhism, making exquisite and colorful gilded bronze Buddha not only has practical significance of religious belief, but also embodies social development, political and economic development, culture and art at that time, and has high artistic value. At the same time, the modeling design and processing technology of bronze Buddha statues with gilded gold in past dynasties are different, which has unique characteristics of the times, which is also of key practical significance for scientific research on the progress of Buddhism in China.